Many compositions used for cosmetic or personal hygiene purposes comprise a suspension or solution of active ingredients in an aliphatic alcohol having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms. Most commonly the aliphatic alcohol used is ethanol as it is readily available, relatively inexpensive and has no adverse properties. In many cases such compositions are required to be in the form of a thixotropic gel, rather than a freeflowing liquid, in order to facilitate topical application to the human body. A typical example of such a composition is underarm deodorant which must be capable of being mixed by shaking but must not be too freeflowing on application. Hitherto the viscosity of such compositions has been increased by incorporating into the alcoholic medium an organo-clay which has been prepared by surface treating a clay mineral of the smectite type with a quaternary alkyl ammonium compound of the type wherein at least one of the alkyl groups is a higher alkyl group containing from 10 to 24 carbon atoms and wherein at least one of the remaining three alkyl groups is a lower alkyl group containing less than 10 carbon atoms. In general, it has been found that in order to achieve the desired viscosifying effect it is necessary to add at least 10% by weight, based on the weight of the alcoholic medium, of an organo-clay surface treated with a quaternary alkyl ammonium compound. One attempt which has been made to overcome the need to use such relatively large amounts of the organo-clay is disclosed in British Patent Specification No. 2,001,063A.